A Tale of Two Cities

Through his novel's two unforgettable main characters, Sydney Carton and Madame Defarge, Charles Dickens expertly evokes and contrasts life in England during the reign of George III and life in France during the revolution and the horror that came to dominate it. Personifying these conflicting cultures and historical imperatives, Dickens's two protagonists dramatically fall in love, indicating that perhaps 19th-century England and France had more in common than not. A novel that is satisfying both as a work of literature and as a statement on a crucial period of history, "A Tale of Two Cities remains one of Dickens's most popular, inspiring works.